


Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

by Smokeringsanddeadkings



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: BAMF Alec Lightwood, BAMF Isabelle Lightwood, BAMF Jace Wayland, Clary is in awe of how cool her friends are, Fighting, Gen, I just realized that I didn't include Magnus, Luke is amused, Oops, Or Simon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 05:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14205945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeringsanddeadkings/pseuds/Smokeringsanddeadkings
Summary: Jace, Izzy, and Clary start a fight club (without Alec's permission) in order to avoid chores.





	Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by that scene in 2B with Jace and Alex fighting. Title is under work, but it's currently inspired by the Daft Punk song of the same name. This unedited lmao

Clary cheers as she watches Jace disarm yet another opponent, securing another victory under his belt. Alec had assigned all available persons at the Institute not on a mission or an important assignment to help clean out the massive archives. It was a dreadfully boring task that no one enjoyed doing. 

 

Alec had been called away to a meeting almost immediately after assigning the task, so with no one there to make them do the cleaning they had quickly found more entertaining activities to do. That was how they were in their current situation.

 

It had been Jace’s idea. He had proposed a tournament of sorts. Two people would battle it out with a weapon of their choice. They had the entire courtyard at their disposal. No fatal injuries were allowed was the only rule. They advanced in a bracket type system, much like those basketball games that Luke liked to watch in the springtime.

 

Clary had gotten out fairly early in the competition, but she wasn’t beating herself up too much. The Institute residents had been training for their entire lives and she was still fairly new. Jace, on the other hand, had predictably breezed through each of his fights with ease. Due to his most victory, he had rocketed himself into the final two. He had one last opponent to defeat.

 

“Ready to be beat by your little sister?” Isabelle asks, a smirk curling her painted lips. She grabs her serpent bracelet, allowing it to transform into her signature whip. 

 

Isabelle had also dominated in all her matches. Many had conceded defeat after one glance at her whip. Honestly, Clary didn’t blame them.

 

Jace rolls his shoulders back and readjusts his grip on his seraph blade. “Remember not to whine too much when you lose, sis.”

 

In the blink of an eye, the battle begins. Jace darts towards Izzy lightning fast, but doesn’t gain much ground as she snaps her whip towards his feet causing him to retreat. Undeterred, he pivots and skirts towards her left side and swings. Isabelle easily dodges the strike and the following onslaught of attacks.

 

As the match drags on, a realization hits Clary. Isabelle was just toying with Jace. She allowed him to execute a series of complicated attacks, allowing him to get closer. But never close enough that he could do any real damage. Anytime he got too close she would send him into retreat with a simple snap of her whip.

 

“She’s waiting for him to tire himself out, so that she can crush him with little resistance,” a voice whispers in her ear.

 

Clary startles and whips around. She relaxes when she sees Luke grinning at her. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I was in a meeting with Alec about some rogue werewolf attacks that have been happening in Yonkers. Alec, might I mention, is going to be pissed when he sees you guys taking part in this pissing contest when I’m sure you all should be doing something important or more productive,” Luke states with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Let’s hope he doesn’t catch us then,” she says with a cheeky smile. “Besides, cleaning the archives is boring.”

 

Luke nods in understanding before turning his gaze back to the fight before them. “I expected better of Jace. This match could have already been over if he would get his head out of his ass.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Jace is a great fighter. Everybody knows that. But he constantly needs his ego stroked, so he’s doing all these unnecessarily showy moves to show his audience how skilled he is. He’s tiring himself out for attention,” Luke explains. “Isabelle understands this and is waiting for the perfect moment to strike, which should be any minute now.”

 

Clary absorbs this information as she turns her attention back to the siblings.She watches as Jace flips out of the path of one of his sister’s strikes and frowns. He could have easily avoided the blow with a simple step backwards. The blonde was just being a showoff she observes.

 

Luke’s prediction rings true when the moment of truth presents itself. Jace steps out of the way too slowly and the whip grazes him. Isabelle smirks, sensing victory to be close. With a sharp snap of her wrist, she has her whip wrapped around his blade. With a final tug, the seraph blade leaves Jace’s grasp and clatters to the ground.

 

“I win!” Isabelle crows. “How does defeat taste, J?”

 

“I distinctly remember instructing you all to clean and reorganize the archives and yet here you all are having some useless pissing contest. Someone explain to me why they thought it was alright to disregard my orders,” a familiar voice demands.

 

A feeling of unrest ripples through the assembly as they turn towards the source of the voice. A very irritated looking Alec was leaning against a pillar farthest from the action. Clary seriously wondered how no one had noticed someone of Alec’s stature lurking around.

 

“Well?” he prompts. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

 

“Archive duty is boring and useless! At least this was putting our skills to use,” Jace says, stepping forward.

 

“This was just a means for you to show-off. Just because something I tell you to do is boring, that means you don’t have to do it?”

 

It was a trap. A trick question. Clary’s mom used to ask her the kind of questions and like a fool, she would answer and get herself into even more trouble. She hoped Jace would have good enough sense not to fall for it.

 

“You said it, not me.” Evidently, he did not.

 

“I have a proposition,” Isabelle pipes up. “If one of us beats you, we don’t have to do archive duty.”

 

Alec’s face twitches once, before clearing into an emotionless mask. “If I win, the archives still get cleaned AND you all have to do conditioning with me tomorrow.”

 

Clary notices more than one person wince at the mention of conditioning. It couldn’t be that bad. Besides, Isabelle was going to win.

 

“Deal.”

 

The crowd parts for Alec as he makes his way towards Isabelle.

 

“I don’t think his bow is going to help him here.”

 

“Yeah, what’s he gonna do? Stab her with an arrow?”

 

“Talk about a one-trick pony.”

 

“Do you even remember how to use a seraph blade?” Isabelle taunts with a smile.

 

“We’ll see, now won’t we?” Alec says flatly. “I’m not going to go easy on you, Iz.”

 

“I’d be insulted if you did,” she shoots back.

 

“Clary,” the raven calls out. The redhead startles at him addressing her so unexpectedly.

 

“Yes?” she answers hesitantly.

 

“I’m letting you pick my weapon.”

 

Clary feels strangely touched by the gesture. She thinks back to her early training sessions. “A staff.”

 

Alec nods and she swears she sees a flicker of amusement in his eyes. He relieves Raj of the staff clutched in his hands. (Raj had suffered defeat at Isabelle’s hands about four rounds back.)

 

The Lightwood siblings get in battle stances. Tension crackles between them as they face each other. 

 

“Ready when you are.”

 

Without any further prompting. Isabelle commences the showdown.

 

Isabelle lashes out, causing Alec to retreat much like her other opponents. However instead of letting up on her attacks like she had with the others, she increases the frequency of them, not giving Alec anytime to recover.

 

Clary watches as he dodges her strikes with ease. She would not have ever pictured someone as awkward as Alec to be so fluid; his movements were so smooth and flowing it was like watching an elaborate dance. Alec narrows his eyes and stills suddenly, halting all movement.

 

“What the hell is he doing?!” While the elder sibling had stopped didn’t mean that Isabelle had. “He’s going to get seriously hurt!”

 

She watches as Luke observes the scene before them with keen eyes. “Alec is going to be fine. Trust me.”

 

She watches a small smile creep its way onto Alec’s lips.With a burst speed. he runs towards Izzy. Instead of dodging out the path of her whip, Clary watches in horror steps into the blows.

 

She winces expecting to hear the telltale slap of skin against electrum. However, the whip never makes contact with Alec and instead he approaches his sister injury free, forcing her to retreat. Clary watches in shock as Alec’s hand darts out and grabs the metal length. With a tug, he pulls a thoroughly shocked Isabelle towards him. With the staff in his left hand, he raps it sharply against his sister’s wrist. With a cry, she drops her weapon and a final flourish of Alec’s wrist, the staff is pressed against her throat.

 

“I win,” Alec declares. He moves the staff from against Izzy’s throat and tosses it back to Raj. “See you all at four for conditioning tomorrow morning,” he calls as he heads back towards the Institute.

 

“How-did he- what just happened?” Clary felt more than a little frazzled.

 

“Alec is an archer. He’s used to shooting at moving targets, so he has to predict a target’s pattern of movement; where they’re going to be,” Luke explains. “Remember what when you freaked out about Alec stepping back and not moving? He was calculating the frequency of Isabelle’s attacks and figuring a plan of attack from an outside perspective.”

 

Jace slides an arm around Clary’s shoulders. “When we all chose our weapons, Hodge made Alec master every single weapon before letting him get his bow. Said that being an archer could put him in a vulnerable situation and relying too much on his bow could become his achilles heel.” he raises his shoulder in a half-shrug. “Isabelle was doomed from the start. I can still kick his ass at hand-to-hand though.”

 

“So, is Alec’s conditioning really that bad?” she asks, turning to the blonde.

 

Jace groans. “I would skip breakfast if I were you.”


End file.
